Vertical update, Dark Horse discussion

The big news broke last night: Kodansha and Dai Nippon have each bought a 46% share (Kodansha’s is slightly larter) in Vertical. The deal was originally described as a purchase but it seems more like an investment; details are still emerging, but Vertical marketing director Ed Chavez has already reassured worried readers via Twitter that their manga publishing plans won’t be affected. Stay tuned!

The truth is, as Johanna notes, that Dark Horse rules the LCS manga lists because (drum roll) manga just never sold in comics shops the way its bookstore numbers would indicate. I will come right out and say, now that it’s been a decade, that the idea of just plunking manga into a comics store and expecting it to sell just because NARUTO was selling at the Borders down the street was never going to work, and I was wrong to think it would.

Heidi argues that this is because manga was a social scene and bookstores lend themselves to that. I think the reasons are a bit more complex—the manga audience was already going to bookstores, and that’s where they discovered manga, while most people, especially teenagers, don’t know that comics stores even exist. Aside from that, though, I think Dark Horse has succeeded so well because they publish manga that appeals to the typical comics store customer, an adult male who likes action stories with plenty of battles and some scantily clad ladies on the side. That’s what Dark Horse publishes: Seinen manga. Their books are more mature and less stylized than Shonen Jump and Shoujo Beat manga; I once described them as “manly manga for manly men,” and since that sort of story sells well in the direct market as American comics, it’s not surprising it sells well as manga as well. Dark Horse went where the customers were, while the other publishers created new customers. Both are legitimate ways of building an audience.

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